


Time Well Spent

by MxStitch



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Friendship, Gen, twitter prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21634456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MxStitch/pseuds/MxStitch
Summary: Hound and Beachcomber go bug hunting.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Time Well Spent

**Author's Note:**

> Twitter Prompt from @MatrixMatriarch. G1 Continuity, pre-T:TM.

“So… who’s our mark?”

Hound chuckled at the phrasing of Beachcomber’s question. “Well, it just so happens that it’s a flyer. Recently spotted in Montana and Glacier National Park is as good a place to start as any so… if you’ve got the equipment-”

Beachcomber patted his subspace with a nod, “I do!”

“Then let’s go!”

“Heh! Don’t you mean, transform and roll out?”

Hound grinned and did just as Beachcomber said.

Typically, when Beachcomber and Hound had a matching shift schedule (and matching leave time) Beachcomber would join Hound on a hunt. Hound knew every US or Canadian national park and park ranger within 1,000 miles of the Autobot base. The trip to Glacier National Park didn’t take long. They’d been able to drive through the night and before Beachcomber knew it, he was looking at deep purple mountains, popping out from forests so thick he couldn’t see through the trees and water that was so clean it looked like a mirror had been placed on the ground. The parts of the ground that were easily visible to his optics were dappled in a vivid rainbow of colors thanks to the flowers flourishing on the ground.

“Wow.” Beachcomber mumbled as he and Hound transformed to their robot modes. “We’ve been here more than a few times… but it’s always…”

“Beautiful. If we breathed, I’d say it was breathtaking.” Hound chuckled. “Speaking of… we probably won’t run into a lot of humans this time.”

“That’s a shame! That last time at the star party-“

“I know!”

“And that far out guy had the telescope-“

“I know!”

“We really had them going-“

Hound couldn’t contain his giggles any longer, “Hehe, I know!”

“It really is a beautiful view though…”

“Yeah… I know…” Hound smiled softly and tapped his sub space. “We should get ready, because if we can find one coming out of its cacoon right now we can keep track of it and watch it take flight for the first time tonight.”

“Right!” Beachcomber fished a holo-camera, speciality made by Wheeljack, out of his sub space. “Got the goods!” Snapping an optic was good, of course, but holographic images from this camera made it a lot easier to show Spike, Carly and the others their finds.

Hound was always careful with his steps and keen with his optics but Beachcomber took the lead, his internal sensors could pick up even the smallest movement. They carefully stepped through the forest, gently pushing aside branches, stepping over flowers and moss, peds making deep impressions in the dirt and grass. They ducked under bird’s nests, paused to let a swift fox scamper across their path and Beachcomber booped the snoot of a curious bear cub that scrambled away from the Autobot with haste.

They found their objective shortly after. The cocoon was brown, kind of fluffy, and the wiggles indicated that it was still presently occupied. It took a few minutes, but a fluffy winged worm with feathered antenna crawled out and clung to a branch. Beachcomber and Hound settled down to watch it. Green wings slowly unfurled from their purple tether. Matching orbs on the forewing and hindwing revealed themselves as hours passed. Beachcomber, his interest utterly seized by the moth, allowed Hound to relieve him of his camera duties.

Beachcomber broke the silence. “It takes them a day to be flight ready?” 

“Well…” Hound snapped a quick photo. “Technically it takes them about 43 weeks to be flight ready.”

“Woah… explain.”

Hound smiled, “They’re larvae for seven weeks, pupae for nine months, and then they hatch and for a week, they fly.” 

More than a few minutes of silence passed between Hound and Beachcomber. The green Autobot took his eyes off of the moth for a moment to glance at his companion. Beachcomber seemed to be searching for words when finally, he found them.

“One week? They only reach their full potential and live for… one week… That’s. That’s really sad, Hound.”

Hound couldn’t help but smile a little, “I don’t think it’s sad at all… It’s just different.They can only fly for-“ he paused “3% of their life… but to grow for the other 97% of their time on this planet? To spend almost your entire life growing? Doesn’t seem sad to me at all. Seems like time well spent.”

When Beachcomber quietly mirrored his smile, Hound turned back to see their moth fluttering its wings. He lifted his camera and took the shot.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
